AN ERA OF INTERVENTION ★^741Wilson and Mexico
Wilson’s major preoccupation in Latin America was Mexico, where in 1911 a
revolution led by Francisco Madero overthrew the government of dictator Por-
firio Díaz. Two years later, without Wilson’s knowledge but with the backing
of the U.S. ambassador and of American companies that controlled Mexico’s
oil and mining industries, military commander Victoriano Huerta assassinated
Madero and seized power.
Wilson was appalled. The United States, he announced, would not extend
recognition to a “government of butchers.” He would “teach” Latin Americans,
he added, “to elect good men.” When civil war broke out in Mexico, Wilson
ordered American troops to land at Vera Cruz to prevent the arrival of weap-
ons meant for Huerta’s forces. But to Wilson’s surprise, Mexicans greeted the
marines as invaders rather than liberators. Vera Cruz, after all, was where the
forces of the conquistador Hernán Cortés had landed in the sixteenth century
and those of Winfield Scott during the Mexican War. More than 100 Mexicans
and 19 Americans died in the fighting that followed.
Huerta resigned in 1914 and fled the country. Meanwhile, various Mexi-
can factions turned on one another. A peasant uprising in the southern part
of the country, led by Emiliano Zapata, demanded land reform. The Wilson
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RussianSpanishCOLONIAL POSSESSIONS, 1900In what ways did the Progressive presidents promote the expansion
of American power overseas?